Breakthrough in Occupational Therapy with Mixed-Reality exergaming for cerebellar ataxia patients

Abstract

Occupational therapy is a rehabilitation program that aim to recover or maintain the skills needed in daily life activities in order to preserve autonomy. Technologies, such as Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality, have found application in this field where their benefits have been recognised. The aim of this study is to present a mixed reality app for occupational therapy specifically implemented for ataxic patients. The app is implemented in Unity with the integration of the Vuforia asset and it is built for HoloLens2 device. The app can detect a real mug and provide virtual audio-visive feedback to the user during the action of reaching the mug. The audio-visive feedbacks were designed in accordance with an expert. Feedbacks were employed in order to increase concentration on the target and confidence in successfully autonomously complete the action of reaching the target following a virtual straight line. This app could be improved by integrating room-scanning new objects to be detect and feedback according to patient’s necessities. Hardware limitations of the HoloLens2 were for this type of application. However, this system has the potential to be of daily support to patients with neuromotor disorders as well as, with the necessary customisation, to the elderly and visually impaired.